Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed his second victory of the 2024 Vuelta a España on stage 7, triumphing from a mini bunch that had been closely lowered on the late climb of the Alto del 14%.
As Primož Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) launched a volley of assaults on the category-2 climb, amassing bonus seconds on on the prime, the lead group was minimize to 30 riders, and an important absentee was Van Aert’s chief sprinting adversary, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuinck), who was already dropped however ended up crashing throughout the crest of the climb in a weird contact of wheels.
An open plateau, descent, and 10km run-in was properly neutralised by none aside from Sepp Kuss, the defending Vuelta champion turning domestique to maintain the assaults below wraps – notably from UAE Crew Emirates’ Marc Soler – and guarantee Van Aert might dash it out from that lowered group.
That Van Aert did, although he did additionally need to thank Purple Bull’s Alexandr Vlasov, who shut down a last-gasp assault from UAE’s Pavel Sivakov to tee up the dash. When Van Aert opened up, he surged out in entrance and clinched a convincing victory forward of Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma).
“I did not count on the race would explode prefer it did,” mentioned Van Aert, who used most of his winner’s interview to pay tribute to Kuss, who went deep regardless of having his personal GC ambitions to consider.
“Sepp did such an incredible job. I do not know if individuals realise what it is like in the event you’re beneath 60kg to do these form of pulls on the flat. I had goosebumps within the wheel and I simply needed to complete it off.
“In our crew it is not solely about successful however performing as a crew, and a a part of that’s everybody has to sacrifice themselves for the others,” Van Aert continued. “The defending champion of this race pulling for you is a big instance of our crew philosophy, so for that I’m so proud.”
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Kuss drags again Soler on the run-in
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Stage 7 was quiet for essentially the most half, that includes a one-man breakaway, however the ending circuit round Córdoba noticed the late climb of the Alto del 14% (7.4km at 5.6%), the place Purple Bull ripped up the script. Roglič, maybe smarting from shedding the crimson jersey by such an enormous margin the earlier afternoon, launched repeated accelerations, and minimize the group to measurement earlier than amassing six bonus seconds on the summit to begin decreasing his deficit to Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R), who was current and proper on his first day in crimson.
Kuss gained 4 seconds in bonuses and Richard Carapaz (EF Schooling-EasyPost) the ultimate two, however there have been greater actions on GC additional down the climb. Purple Bull’s offensive partly backfired as Florian Lipowitz, fourth general, was dropped and completed 17 seconds down. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) misplaced an extra minute whereas the shine was taken off Visma’s day as Cian Uijtdebroeks bombed and misplaced eight minutes.
O’Connor takes the crimson jersey into the weekend with a lead of 4:45 over Roglič. “I used to be pleased with how I felt and the way issues performed out,” mentioned the race chief.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The 180.2km stage from Archidona to Córdoba was enlivened by one man: Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The Spaniard was the one rider keen to go within the breakaway, and settled down for a lonely day within the saddle.
He was given some room for manoeuvre, carving out a bonus of eight minutes after 40km, however he was very controllable from the attitude of Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck, the 2 groups who have been setting the agenda within the peloton.
The hole steadily lowered on the rolling roads, down to 5 minutes with 100km to go and fewer than three minutes with 50km to go. It actually crashed, although, once they approached the end line in Cordóba for the primary time with 40km to go.
Isasa rolled by means of the road, which doubled up as an intermediate dash, solely 30 seconds earlier than Groves nipped out to pip Van Aert to the next-best assortment of factors for the inexperienced jersey classification.
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Isasa was then swallowed up as UAE Crew Emirates labored on the strategy to the Alto del 14%, but it surely was Purple Bull who actually lit the race up. Giovanni Aleotti and Dani Martínez each hit the entrance, and there was a quick flip from Lipowitz that maybe foreshadowed his personal struggles. Roglič accelerated himself to shake issues up earlier than Vlasov took an enormous flip that turned the screw on Arensman and Uijtdebroeks.
Roglič hit it once more 1.5km from the summit and shortly solely 20 riders have been there, though hesitation adopted, stuffed by speculative assaults. Roglič went for a 3rd time 500 metres from the highest, and took it to the road to gather his six bonus seconds.
There have been solely 20 riders up entrance with 25km to go, together with Van Aert, with loads of harm behind. Groves was already a minute down however rode into the rear wheel of Nairo Quintana on the prime and actually rolled throughout the KOM line – any remaining hopes he had going up in smoke.
As a small group made its manner again to the entrance on the rolling plateau, UAE went on the offensive, first attacking by means of Sivakov after which by means of Soler, who opened a lead of 20 seconds. With no different teammates in that group, Kuss set to work early for Van Aert, holding Kuss in sight because the street tilted downhill after which onto the flat within the ultimate 10km.
Roglič goes on the assault
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Van Aert tried to launch a shock with an assault of his personal but it surely was snuffed out by UAE and Kuss settled again into his improvised lead-out function, slowly however certainly dragging Soler again with 3.5km to go.
A lull threatened to permit the Lipowitz group to come back again however David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) kicked it off once more, and Sivakov then threw the cat among the many pigeons with a transfer simply forward of the ultimate kilometre. With Kuss used up, it may need spelled bother for Van Aert, however Vlasov, presumably considering Roglič may be capable of dash for the win, set about shutting it down.
He solely did so with round 250 metres to go, which turned out to be the proper launchpad for Van Aert to say what he described as “an enormous one” in his profession.
RESULTS
Vuelta a España stage seven: Archidona > Córdoba (180.2km)
1. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:15:39
2. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek
3. Pau Miquel (Spa) Kern Pharma
4. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ
5. Quinten Hermans (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck
6. Quentin Pacher (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
7. Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty
8. Harold Tejada (Col) Astana-Qazaqstan
9. Max Poole (GBr) Crew dsm-firmenich-PostNL
10. George Bennett (NZl) Israel-Premier Tech
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE SEVEN
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, in 23:28:28
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:545
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Crew Emirates, +4:59
4. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, +5:23
5. Cristian Rodriguez (Spa) Arkea-B&B Lodges, +5:26
6. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +5:29
7. Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Dstny, +5:32
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +5:35
9. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathon AG2R La Mondiale, +5:38
10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +5:49
